Notes: I couldn't think of anything for kuzuhina without plagiarizing NachtGraves' Errant Errands-verse so I'm writing Naegami instead lmao
Pre-Tragedy!
Day 8: Shopping
Naegi knew that there was no way their class' Secret Santa exchange would go off without a hitch. They were just such a colorful group of kids, with such varied personalities, that there were bound to be road bumps somewhere along the way; Ishimaru was probably going to slip up and loudly admit his recipient within the first few days, and whoever was getting a present from Hagakure was probably going to end up with an OOPArt pulled from the depths of his jacket pockets at the last minute.
Still, Naegi hadn't expected the first issue to arise immediately after they all received their assignments at the end of afternoon homeroom.
"Naegi," Togami commanded, marching directly to his desk. "Tell me what to buy Ikusaba. You're close with her, correct?"
Naegi gaped up at him, sparing a brief glance towards the soldier in question—she was chatting with her sister, and hadn't seemed to take notice of them, but she always had her guard up, there was no way she hadn't heard that.
"Togami-kun," Naegi choked out, grabbing the heir's sleeve as he stood. "Come with me for a second."
He pulled them both into the hallway, and after firmly shutting the door behind them, he sighed and leaned against the wall.
"Well?" Togami probed.
Naegi rubbed his forehead. "First of all, this is Secret Santa. You're not supposed to be giving yourself away where she can hear!"
"Ridiculous," Togami scoffed. "There's no point to all this secrecy in the first place."
"But that's just how it is!" Naegi sighed. "Just go along with it, please?"
Togami raised an eyebrow, but gave no confirmation nor denial. "So will you tell me what to buy for her or not?"
"I'm not... going to tell you," Naegi said, trying not to squirm under the other boy's gaze. "I mean, part of this is that you have to figure out for yourself what the best gift is for the person, even if you don't know them as well as others. But, um..." He pulled out his own slip of paper, looking at the name of his recipient written in large, loopy handwriting. "Well, I have to buy something for Enoshima-san, so maybe we could go shopping for them together? I mean, they don't like all the same things, of course, but..." He floundered a bit, flustered. "If you really do need pointers, you can bounce ideas off me while we're at the store."
Togami sniffed derisively. "I'm not sure you could afford the stores I patronize."
"Where are you— wait, no!" Naegi waved his hands in front of him. "Togami-kun, we discussed this! We're all supposed to work with a budget of three thousand yen; no gifts more expensive than that!" With a sigh, he continued, "So let's just go to the department store, okay? We're bound to find something good in budget there!"
"...If those are the conditions for your help, then I suppose I have no choice," Togami said with a long-suffering sigh.
"Help, huh?" Naegi smiled up at him cheekily as they headed back into the classroom to grab their bags. "Imagine, the great Byakuya Togami needing to ask someone for help!"
"Silence." Togami threw his bag over his shoulder and turned to Naegi, his mouth pulled into a thin, stern line. "Lead the way to this department store, now."
"Hmm..." For a long minute, Naegi stared at the display of makeup and other cosmetics, humming thoughtfully. Finally, he looked up at Togami with a sheepish grin. "Yeah, I can't actually tell which of these are good. I'm guessing you can't either?"
"It's... not within my area of expertise," Togami admitted.
Chuckling, Naegi pushed himself away from the counter. "Enoshima-san is probably really picky about makeup, anyway. It's just that Ikusaba-san has mentioned she's started getting interested in cosmetics, so I thought this might be a way to get both gifts done at once... Sorry."
Togami shook his head and followed Naegi as they started for another section of the store. "Such an effortless gift wouldn't be worth the Togami name anyway."
"Haha, right..." Weren't you the one demanding I tell you what to buy? Naegi bit back his retort and focused instead on scanning the aisles as they turned a corner towards the toy section. "Oh! Do you think I should get Enoshima-san a teddy bear? I've noticed her doodling bears on her notes lately, so she must like them..."
Behind him, Togami made a thoughtful sound. "Are you so perceptive with all of our classmates?"
Naegi shrugged as he scoured the selection of stuffed animals. "I mean, we're all friends, right? Of course I'll pay attention to the things they like. Oh, this one is holding a little baby bear, how cute!" He picked it up and held hugged it to his chest. "And it's really soft, too. Yeah, I'll get Enoshima-san this one!"
"In that case, what would you get for me?"
Naegi spun around to face Togami, who frowned and looked off to the side. "Sorry, what?"
Togami pushed his glasses up his nose and cleared his throat. "If you really do take notice of your classmates so much, what do you think I would want as a gift?"
"Oh..." Naegi looked downward in thought, the bear's plush tickling the tip of his nose. "I mean, you'd definitely be hard to shop for, especially for someone on a budget. I feel like you'd have pretty expensive tastes, and there's nothing stopping you from immediately buying anything you want for yourself, either. But..." He looked up again, grinning nervously. "You like coffee, right? You drink it every morning at breakfast. So maybe I'd get you a bag of nice coffee beans—and hopefully it'd be nice enough."
Togami glared down at him for a moment, and just as Naegi was beginning to notice a pinkish tint high on the taller boy's cheeks, he turned away. "Hn. Not bad."
The heir began walking away, and Naegi quickly followed after before he could fall behind. "'Not bad'? Did I answer correctly, then?"
"Your answer was... satisfactory," Togami said. "Just barely a passing grade. You realize that I wouldn't accept just any coffee."
"Well, yeah, that's why I said—" Naegi cut himself off as Togami stopped short. Just barely avoiding a collision with his back, Naegi looked up at him curiously. "Togami-kun?"
Togami was staring at the bags and luggage section, a hand placed on his chin thoughtfully. Without a word, he strode down an aisle, and Naegi followed after.
"Did you think of something?" he asked as Togami took a turn down an adjacent aisle. "You have an idea of what to get for Ikusaba-san?"
"Yes, if I can just find— there we are." He stopped in front of an assortment of small pouches.
Naegi checked the display sign. "A makeup bag case?"
"You mentioned that she's started to be interested in cosmetics, correct?" Togami looked over the selection, picking out a jet-black rectangular clutch, and then a triangular navy blue pouch with gold trimmings. "We might not know what sort of makeup she'll prefer, but she should at least appreciate something to keep it in." Apparently deciding on the blue one, he held it up for Naegi's approval. "Well? Will she like it?"
Naegi gaped for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah... it's very handsome! I think it suits her."
Looking just the tiniest bit pleased with himself, Togami placed put the black bag back on the shelf and turned on his heel. "Now that that's over with, there's one more section I'd like to stop by."
The final stop, it turned out, was the seasonal section filled from end to end with Christmas decorations and holiday trimmings. Togami quickly located a wall display of European-made ornaments and charms and perused the selection.
"Are you going to get her a charm for the bag, too?" Naegi asked. "That should be cute... but can you stay in budget, then?"
"Shush, Naegi," Togami hissed. "Don't question me." His hand paused before the display before reaching forward and picking out a small stuffed pig hanging from a keyring.
"A pig?" Naegi frowned. "Are you sure about that? She might think you're saying she's fat or something."
Togami gave him a withering look and wrapped his hand fully around the keychain, as if to say, yes, I am buying this, and how dare you. "Naegi, why don't you go check out with your purchase," he said icily. "I'll meet you back at the front."
Well, when you say it that way... Feeling entirely like a scolded child, Naegi left Togami and headed for the registers at the front of the store. He had to admit once he got there, though, that the suggestion did make sense; the register lines were long with holiday shoppers, so it was a good idea to start waiting in line as soon as possible.
Ten minutes later, Naegi left the registers with the teddy bear safely in a shopping bag, and he was surprised to see Togami already waiting for him at the exit. "What? How did you beat me?"
Togami scoffed. "I'm Byakuya Togami."
He really hoped Togami hadn't used that as an excuse to cut in line.
"Here," Togami said before Naegi could question him on the matter. He pulled the pig keychain out of his shopping bag and held it out. "Take this in return for your assistance today."
"Oh..." Naegi almost wanted to refuse—he didn't need a gift in return for helping out a friend—but he noticed that faint blush had returned to Togami's cheekbones again. If offering a gift was something the other boy was struggling with, well, it just didn't seem right to reject his efforts. "Thank you," he said, taking the small stuffed pig.
Looking at it closely, it was a pretty cute keychain—a red velvet ribbon was tied around the pig's neck, and there was a little four-leaf clover appliquéd onto its rump. Naegi rubbed the metal button in the pig's ear thoughtfully; it was definitely a nice gift, but... "Um, can I ask why you got me a pig?"
Togami sniffed derisively. "It's a Glüksschwein."
"A glu... glyu..." Naegi struggled to navigate his tongue around the unfamiliar sounds. "A what?"
Togami gave a long sigh, as if it were Naegi's fault for not being completely fluent in... English? Was it an English word? "A Glüksschwein. It's a German good luck pig."
"Oh..." Slowly processing the words, Naegi felt his face beginning to heat up. "Oh... oh! Um, thank you!" He smiled brightly up at Togami. "That's actually a really thoughtful gift, Togami-kun!"
"Naturally," Togami muttered, averting his gaze. "And I expect you to keep quiet about all this, too."
"Right, of course!" Naegi safely stowed the keychain away in his bag before following Togami out the doors to head back to campus, unable to wipe the smile from his face.
Notes: To my knowledge, there is no such Steiff keychain, but it probably cost like two hundred dollars and Naegi was probably very put out when he found out lmao
